Building a home network around a file server

[Nevets]

I want to set up a network in my home that where i can access pictures and documents on a file server from other computers and xboxs in my house. I would also like to play all my music, and watch movies stored on the fileserver. I share all those files between different machines right now but its slow. the server I need would have to be able to handle multiple people watching movies and listening to music and still be fast enough to get documents as fast as possible. The network will include 2 xbox 360s 4 laptops and 2 desktops . I eventualy want one of the desktops to be connected to my tv and surround system for movies/ music ( any help getting started there would be great) but the other might make a good server.

Can I build one my self with parts of my desktop for a reasonable price?

how should i make it run quickly when multiple users are accessing?

How can I improve the speed the overall network?

Does anyone know how to watch movies stored on a hard drive on an xbox 360 ( like netflicks )

Is anyone using a similar network set up right now? are there anythings i should be mindful of?

Does anyone know of any media soft ware that will make it easyer to browse and use movies and music? I like the way net flicks is set up and i want to rip my dvds and browse/ play them like that but with music as well.

answers to any of the above questions would be great, as would your personal , experiences, and opinions about the project. links to relevant information would also be good .

[office politics]

Can I build one my self with parts of my desktop for a reasonable price?

reasonable price is a matter of opinion. i'd expect to spend around 1000-1500. you could prolly pull it off for cheaper though.

how should i make it run quickly when multiple users are accessing?

fast cpu w multicore, sata or sas drive 10k or greater, plenty of memory; latest ddr, gigabit network card

How can I improve the speed the overall network?

network switch as opposed to a hub

Does anyone know how to watch movies stored on a hard drive on an xbox 360 ( like netflicks )

i would have to look this up. ppl on here told me that i could watch video files ona ps3 by attaching a thumb drive.

Is anyone using a similar network set up right now? are there anythings i should be mindful of?

i usually run videos straight off a local hard drive.

Does anyone know of any media soft ware that will make it easyer to browse and use movies and music? I like the way net flicks is set up and i want to rip my dvds and browse/ play them like that but with music as well.

i would prolly use windows media player / center for this

[CntdwnToExtn]

Originally Posted by Nevets

Can I build one my self with parts of my desktop for a reasonable price?

Yup.
At least a Quad core, 8gig RAM, gigabit networking and good hard drives. 7200rpm would be fine like Seagates's ES2 drives or Western Digitals RES4s drives.
Of course some nice 10K drives are nice but you'll pay more for less storage.

how should i make it run quickly when multiple users are accessing?

I would suggest running a few RAID 1 setups. Files, documents, pictures on 1 array, movies and music on another. This way someone accessing documents will not bother the drives feeding movies.

How can I improve the speed the overall network?

Gigabit for physical connections. Wireless N for wireless.

Does anyone know how to watch movies stored on a hard drive on an xbox 360 ( like netflicks )
Is anyone using a similar network set up right now? are there anythings i should be mindful of?

I don't have X-Box.

Does anyone know of any media soft ware that will make it easyer to browse and use movies and music? I like the way net flicks is set up and i want to rip my dvds and browse/ play them like that but with music as well.

Well, there is Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center that can create libraries from shares.
I use Cyberlink PowerDVD most of the time to watch my ripped DVD's if I want a movie playing while I'm at the computer.

Doing Yahoo!, Bing or Google searches for something like Media Players I know would turn up many results of different players - some you might like better than the ones mentioned above.

[Nevets]

what you think think of <a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/AMD-Phenom-II-925-2-8GHZ-QUAD-CORE-BAREBONE-PC-SYSTEM-/390218358931?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Desktop_PCs&hash=item 5adad3a093">this </a> to upgrade into the main server? i could scavenge the some parts but i would have the upgrade the rest. the grand price range sounds about right. I need to look up what RAID 1 setups are. The idea for using 2 hard drives sounds like a good idea.